Count Your Blessings
by Queaky
Summary: "You are an odd man." Those crimson eyes narrowed and scrutinzed Link's face as if he was the hardest puzzle the Sheikah had ever come across. "And you are an... odd... it." Link countered, twirling a finger at his companion. "Are you sure you are a boy?" AU


_(A/N: Valentine's Day is coming up... its a holiday that I think should be stretched all the way through the year but you guys aren't here to listen to my opinions. lol This fic was written about three months ago or so as a practice so I decided to go ahead and make it so it could be published._

_If anyone wishes to take the concept in it and write a story on it then please so because I won't ever do anything with it._

_I hope you enjoy!_

_It IS an AU because I love writing them! :P_

_Review please!)_

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The fire cackled like a witch dancing about her cauldron tossing in the ingrediants for a wet and cold night.

If Link knew where that witch was he would probably storm her home and decapitate her but, as that was not very Hero like of him, he resigned himself to sitting before the flames with his hands clapsed before his face. The shadows lured the maturing, handsome, sharp features from his face and played with the light in his cobalt eyes as they stared into the orange heat. His mouth was taut, lines creased his face in silent contemplation, and he looked worn out which by all rights he should be.

A dragon had been fought that day and although he had handle the likes of those beasts before it had been no easier. Fire bursting forth from the bowels of a boiling lake, scales too dense for his blade to slice, and teeth sharper than any he could have ever imagined.

He was seventeen. A man by legal right though few his age had experienced the horrors thrust upon his shoulders... if only for the fact that not many seventeen year olds lived after encountering said nightmares.

"What are you thinking about?" A voice, androgonous in tone, spoke from across the flames and crimson eyes searched out for cobalt ones as if looking for a sign of life. "Are you alright?" The question felt childish though it rang out sincerely.

Link rose a brow and sighed through his nose while pulling his hands away so that they could prop him up as he leaned back against them. "Yes, fine..." He paused, frowning. "You?"

"Sore but otherwise unscathed." Sheik replied, sweeping blonde tresses out of the sight his eyes. Those red orbs were the only recognizable feature on the youth's face though the structure that his mask was wrapped around looked far more feminine in Link's eyes.

"You could have just said fine." The Hero replied, smiling for what felt like the first time since the two had collapsed into this odd cave somewhere between Lake Hylia and the red rock path toward the Desert.

Dark blonde brows furrowed. "Why does it matter how I answer?"

"You're too formal."

Sheik made an odd growling noise that Link knew to be the sound of frustration. "You would do well to learn some formality." A small but purposeful pause. "Again."

The Hero of Time smirked and, in an almost mocking way, allowed Prince Lincoln to surface for a brief moment. "Ah, but when one is thrust into the predicament that I have found myself in there is little need for the titles and roles that the Lords and Ladies played at Court. I find myself bored of the tiresome tribulations that come with having to speak as if I were being judged." Lincoln went away and was replaced by the rugged, though cunning, glint of the Hero of Time. "I do not care to say my 'please' and 'thank you's when a monster is trying to behead me." He chuckled. "Much less when I am wet and halfway near freezing."

"You are an odd man." Those crimson eyes narrowed and scrutinzed Link's face as if he was the hardest puzzle the Sheikah had ever come across.

"And you are an... odd... it." Link countered, twirling a finger at his companion. "Are you sure you are a boy?"

"We have been over this." A growl escaped the cloth mask wrapped about the blonde haired man's face. "I. Am. A. Man."

The Hero of Time raised a brow and shook his head. "You don't walk like a man, you don't talk like a man-"

"Because I am not a scoundrel!"

Link continued, unfazed, while ticking off his observations on his fingers. "Your physique is frail-"

"Frail?!"

"You eyes are not masculine-"

Sheik, angry by this point, stood and balled his hands into a fist... the leather of his gloves squeaking almost in pain as he did. "_Speak another word about my-_" He cut himself off by clamping his hand down over where his mouth was beneath his mask...

Link spoke, evenly as he had been the last minute, pointed at the Sheikah and smiled. "And then there's the fact that when I get you really angry your voice goes up to a higher octave." It was barely a second after that a pair of hands clamped about the Hero of Time's throat and he found himself pinned to the ground with his companion ontop of him.

"You," Sheik growled, shaking the youth's head with each word. "do not know when you should silence yourself! You do not know of what you speak! Do not care of-"

The Hero of Time was not so easily defeated and had untangled himself from the other seventeen year old's grasp in a matter of seconds before shoving his companion away from him to the opposite side of the cage. "I'm only trying to figure you out!" He was frowning and breathing hard from having his oxygen cut. A hand massaged at where a Sheik's own two had been.

"_Why?_ I have helped you thus far! Can you not believe me when I tell you what I am?"

Coblat eyes narrowed. "It is not _what_ you are. It is _who_." His straight, ear length, blonde hair was shoved backwards though it fell back in place the moment his hand stopped the action. "There are too many contradictions with you. You say you are a Sheikah but that is impossible! The Sheikah rarely had boys and when they did they came out disfigured... perhaps that is way you hid your face... but you say you are the last of your kind, your Race, but what of Impa?"

"Impa-"

"Your eyes are red, like the Sheikahs, but they do not remain that color under certain lights... and you are constantly lying." Link sighed, sliding down against the wall. "So many lies that I cannot name them all."

"You have speculated far too much-"

"Because you remind me of her."

Sheik's eyes widened at that soft, barely audible admission. "Her?"

"She knew magick... this girl... she was raised by the Kokiri until she came to the Castle to live with us... and she was so wise and naive at the same time." His voice was soft, loving, and cracked with emotion. "When the Castle was attacked and my family..." His choked out a sob but regained his compsure after a moment. "We had sought out the Legend... and found the Ocarina together beneath the Castle vaults that night... but we were attacked... and before we could make it to the Temple... she was caught... and she told me that I must go... and play the song before the door... I did as she commanded." His sorrowful, hurt, and yet strong blue eyes met the crimson of Sheik's startled and scared orbs. "Then I was released after seven agonizing years of watching my kingdom turn ruin, my family... my family getting thrown into the slaughter against that bastard... and all through it there was no sign of her."

Sheik opened his lips to speak... but he could not dare to do so... his throat was much to sore with raw emotion... and when he finally did it was much too high pitched. "She..." He attempted to clear his throat but it did not work... and so he sat in silence as the Prince attempted to calm himself.

"I vowed that I would find her... and reclaim my Throne... rebuild."

"You will."

Link shook his head. "Ghosts... cannot be found."

A long silence came as both bowed their head.

"She was raised by the Kokiri... you said?"

Link nodded.

"Do you know what happened Navi... her faerie?" Tears fell beneath the Sheikah's veil and he was glad Link could not see.

The Prince's head snapped up and he stood, suddenly, but before he could reach Sheik the young man was already upon his own feet and backing away. Coblat eyes were blaring different intense emotions and yet he did not speak... he only lashed out at the mask covering the other youth's face.

"_What are you doing?!"_

"How did you know her faerie's name?! She never arrived at the Castle with her! Navi remained in the Forest because she was hurt in the fight against Gohma!" And then the cloth was seized in the Hero of Time's fingers and ripped away...

Sheik covered his face and collapsed to the ground, forehead pressed against the dirt. "I traveled there!"

"They do not allow strangers!"

"How did they know you?" The cowering youth countered, regretting it the moment he had.

"Then why did they allow me to pass? She had to return to tell them of me!"

A sob of anger, sorrow, frustration, fear, and many other emotions took hold of the Sheikah as he lay in the dirt with his hands covering his face. "Will you not accept that she has died? You just said the perfect words yourself... ghosts cannot be found."

"Will you not trust me?"

A pregnant pause... the world outside crashed in the torrent of the storm... and finally...

Sheik answered. "I trust you... but I am frightened of what may come..." He stood slowly, knowing every movement was watched by the Hero who stood behind dressed in Kokiri green in the honor of his lost friend, and dropped the hands away from his face so that they hung at his sides. "Torture has a way of changing people, Link... making you something that you never want to see in yourself... I am a _shadow._"

It was then that a light engulfed the entire cave, blinding white light, and brought the Hero of Time to his knees in its radiance.

And what emerged from it was a sight he had so longed to see...

A woman with waist long golden hair, violet eyes, and pale skin riddled with scars from battles she had fought by his side and on her own. She was beautiful in the most haunting of ways... her eyes caught his and allowed all the trauma she had suffer pour out... and her lips, full though sad, allowed a soft smile despite the tears streaming down her face. She was still dressed in Sheik's clothes though released of the bindings keeping her gender secret... and he could never imagine her any different.

"Zelda." He whispered her name and held out a hand toward her though he could not find the strength to stand. "Why...why hide from me?"

"It was safer that way..." Her eyebrows creased, angrily. "You would not worry about someone who is dead... you could stay on your task! But, you could not let her go! Let _me go_!"

"Why should I when all that has been keeping me from quitting this insane campaign is the thought that I might save you?!" Link stood, eyes burrowing deeper into hers with each passing second. "_YOU ARE ALL I HAVE EVER WANTED!_" His voiced echoed but its angry rebound did not cover the loving whisper that uttered beneath that mad wave. "I-I would give up my throne to have just seen you like this..."

She would have shouted back at him had she known what words would have shocked him as his had shocked hers. She would have had he not taken her into his arms and stolen her breathe away... Zelda clutched his hair in her hands, pressing her mouth against his as hard as she could without it being painful, and let the tears fall.

His thumb brushed them away when he parted their lips. "I told you that-"

Her fist collided with his chest and she smiled, softly. "You are not the Prince that I remember..." She gave locks a sharp tug, letting him wince, before she pressed a tentative kiss to his lips. "That is not a bad thing..."

"But?"

"It is not a good one either." He frowned at her as she continued. Her beautiful face marked with lines of worry and fear. "We have found five of the six sages that are needed to help-"

"What would stop us from finding the sixth?"

"I have been within all these temples, Link... before when you me as Sheik... you could tranverse the flow of time without a second thought. You will did to do so to be able to enter th-" His lips silenced her.

Cobalt eyes shone like stained glass filled with the colors of joy. "My Father always told me to count each blessing as it comes and prepare for all the future gifts to come." Link cupped her face in one of his calloused palms and smiled softly. "Let us count our blessing tonight and think of the future tomorrow."

Zelda, lost Kokiri and adopted Sheikah, placed both her hands atop Link's and closed her eyes. "One."

Two: Their lips pressed together.

Three: Hands became more bold.

Four: Frantic, flutstered their clothes were discarded.

Five: Shyly they explored unhindered by cloth or fear of what dawn may bring.

Six: Their song beat faster from an innocent child like drum to the passions of a lover's symphony as their voices cried out in an arppegio climax.

Seven: The fire died but for a while their heat would keep them warm and in the dim glow of the embers' light they smiled at one another for they had found a small amount of comfort if only for a night.

In the morning they set out to the desert. The boy Sheik had reappeared in place of the young woman... for their Triforce piece must remain hidden and hers was well guarded underneath the guise of Sheik's identity.

Link dared flaunt his for he wanted Ganondorf to know him...

And know he was coming for him.

Courage would pierce the heart of Power and show him fear.

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I hope you enjoyed this. I hope to made sense... its hard to compact a full story idea into a one-shot! Now, off to attempt another shot at White Tower's next chapter.

Thanks for reading!


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